Automobile parking facilities, for both multi-level garages and single level lots, are typically equipped with a mechanised entrance gate which imprints the time of day on a customer's ticket. When the customer leaves the garage, the attendant computes the automobile residence time from the ticket information and charges the customer accordingly. The customer typically after receiving the ticket must drive randomly throughout the facility to find an empty spot. At times, customers desire to park as close as possible to the entrance, and at other times customers desire to park as close as possible to one of the exits. In either case, however, the empty space is typically found at random.
There have been attempts in the past to better manage parking garages. For example, some garages are equipped with car counters at the entrance and exit of the garage; the difference between the two readings gives the attendant the total number of cars parked in the garage to allow the attendant to determine when the garage is full. There have also been attempts to provide such information to the customers as they drive through the garage by putting counters in each separate area of the garage, for example on each floor, so that as the customer drives through the area he/she knows whether or not there is an empty space in the area. However, he/she must then drive randomly through that area in order to find an empty spot.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,890, there is disclosed the concept of providing individual meters for cars in the parking garage which accumulate parking information in accordance with displayed information. However, each of these approaches are cost-prohibitive because they require that hardware be installed either throughout the garage or be made available for each car entering the garage. In addition, each of the schemes solves only some of the problems associated with management of parking facilities.